Dee Snider on Ending Twisted Sister: ‘I Had to Stop Headbanging’

With millions of records sold and decades of touring under their belts, Twisted Sister have undoubtedly had a hell of a career as a band. When they announced their breakup last year, may were upset by the news, but happy to celebrate the band's legacy and career. Recently, Dee Snider had a chat with SiriusXM Volume show "Trunk Nation" to discuss ending the band when he did, after the group finished up an anniversary tour.

Snider spoke a lot about his intensity and not wanting it to dilute any of the band's intensity. "Basically, the level of intensity that I performed at with Twisted Sister, I had to stop while I could still deliver that before I could no longer deliver that," Snider said of the band's latter period. "The headbanging, the thrashing, all that energy… Where Alice [Cooper] always seemed like a crotchety old dude, and he's crawling around the stage, that works great for a 72-year-old dude now. But what I did does not work for a 62-year-old. I mean, it's just too f--king hard to stay in the shape. Just to keep that going just got harder and harder. I said, 'I wanna stop while people are still smiling and not looking at me saying, 'Oh, remember when he was good?''

He spoke about his current solo project and live shows as well. "Everything I'm doing now, there's no more headbanging involved," explained the singer. "My neck just about had it. And with Twisted, I had to stop headbanging. And as long as I'm onstage with Twisted Sister, I just could not perform with that band and just not want to… I had to thrash. So I felt if I stepped out of that, I don't know if just… At least I could say, 'Hey, I'm doing some new things, I'm trying some new things, and I'm not… I'm not in Twisted Sister. I'm Dee Snider now.' And people seem to be cool with it. And I'm cool with it, because, for some reason, without having that big 'TS' [logo] hanging over my head, I don't feel this obligation to get out there and just start doing that [thrashing around]."

Snider also went on to speak about not wanting the project to go on for too long: "Someone said… I wish I could remember… I think it was Wednesday 13… And he said, 'When a reunion show is good, it makes you feel young again. But when it's bad, it makes you realize how old you've gotten.' And before Twisted Sister reunited, I saw UFO, so that was, like, 2000, 1999 when Michael Schenker was with them. And I was like a freakin' kid — I was fighting my way to the front; I felt like I was in high school again. They looked great, they played great. And I even followed them. I said [to my wife], 'We're gonna go to the next town to see 'em.' And she said, 'What are you, f--king sixteen?' I had to go see the next show, because they made me… So when Twisted reunited, I said, 'That's how I want people to feel.' I don't want them to look up there and go,' Damn! We've gotten old.'"

He wrapped it up on a positive note saying, "I love the guys in Twisted — we're still friends and we ended on a great note, and I love those guys and the legacy. And with the release of [the] 'We Are Twisted F***ing Sister!' [documentary about Twisted Sister's early years], where people got to know the road, how hard we fought for where we got, I just felt it was a good time to end it."